I'm Alice Schlein, a weaver and book maker in South Carolina. Occasionally I write about Photoshop, Network Drafting, bread baking, and whatever else strikes my fancy. Thanks for stopping by! Comments are welcome.

Classes

Explore Color and Texture on Your Rigid Heddle Loom

Wednesday afternoons, 1-4 p.m., taught at OLLI, Furman University, January 16 through March 6. Participants to supply their own rigid heddle looms. Supply list given. Contact me at aschlein[at]att[dot]net for more information.

Books

The Woven Pixel: Designing for Jacquard and Dobby Looms Using Photoshop®Co-authored by Alice Schlein and Bhakti Ziek. 362 pages, many illustrations. Now available for free download on handweaving.net. The accompanying CD with 1400 pattern presets is not included with the free download, but may be purchased separately. Email me at aschlein[at]att[dot]net for more information.

Network Drafting: An IntroductionBy Alice Schlein. Break away from the block. Curves for your dobby loom. Originally published in 1994, now available as print-on-demand from www.lulu.com.

Monographs

Lampas for Shaft LoomsClass notes from Complex Weavers Seminars 2016, newly revised and formatted, in pdf form for download. A review of methods for designing your own lampas fabrics for treadle looms, table looms, and dobbies, eight shafts and above. Over 90 color photos of actual fabrics with drafts. Includes info on pickup lampas and a lampas bibliography. View on a computer, or print out one copy for your own use. USD$21. via PayPal. Email aschlein[at]att[dot]net for ordering info.

A Crepe Is Not Just a Pancake52 pages of text, b&w and color diagrams, and drafts for multishaft tradle & dobby looms. Many color photos of actual cloth. Methods for drafting your own crepe weaves. Annotated bibliography. Pdf available for immediate download. $21. USD. Payment by PayPal. Email me at aschlein[at]att[dot]net for payment instructions.

Echo Weave Based on the 1996 article in Weaver's, Issue 32. With brand new diagrams and high resolution scans of original fabrics. Pdf available for immediate download. $7. USD. Payment by PayPal. Email me at aschlein[at]att[dot]net for payment instructions.

May 14, 2018

The primary weft is wine 60/2 silk, and the primary weft is a gifted gray singles linen (thank you, Nancy!). The weaving is very slow. I do a few inches every morning, and eventually it will get done. Slow but steady wins the race.

May 06, 2018

More about Two Years Before the Mast, which I spoke about in my previous post.

In this book I was particularly struck by the references to textile pursuits. The ship's crew, in rare spare moments, was usually engaged in rope-making and rope-mending activities, the shredding of old rope into oakum (a caulking material composed of shredded fiber and tar), and the making and mending of their own clothing. Yes, by the end of the voyage, our author was actually adept at making his own jackets and trousers! Necessity is the mother of...

I guess this is not a great leap - this morning I decided to tackle the hole in an old hammock with cotton cord and wood glue. I splinted the cut ends with new rope, glued all the knots and joins, and wrapped them with more cord. Then I Introduced a few new cords. It's not pretty, but will give this wonderful old hammock a few more years of life, me hearties!

In the lampas department, I settled on a design with a lot of randomness to it. I think it will be good for clothing. No big dinner plates here.

A thoughtful guest has left an interesting plant on my kitchen table. I love the patterns in this specimen. Does anyone know what it is?

May 04, 2018

I just finished reading "Two Years Before the Mast" by Richard Henry Dana. It is more than just a glorious adventure story.

Dana, who had just completed his second year as a Harvard student, had been suffering from a weakness of the eyes, and decided to take some time off from his studies. He signed on as a crew member on the merchant brig Pilgrim, "before the mast" (the term "before the mast" refers to the quarters of the common sailors, in the forecastle, in the front of the ship). His memoirs of this trip, based on his daily journal during the voyage, are not just a fascinating description of life on board a sailing vessel, but a passionate call for better working conditions of the crews on such vessels. The Pilgrim set sail from Boston in 1834, sailed around Cape Horn, and did extensive trading in various towns on the California coast. The material on early California history, pre-statehood, is especially revealing.

It's a great read. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down, whether you opt for a physical book or one of the many electronic options. Read this book!!!

I just noticed that the first samples on my new lampas warp look very like little sails. Is it a coincidence or my subconscious at work? Regardless, the primary cloth is a satin-based weave and the secondary is 3-end (jeans) twill.

Credit for the painting of the brig Pilgrim: painter Joe Duncan Gleason 1881-1959.

April 26, 2018

There are a few jobs in the studio I try to avoid at all costs. High on the list is transferring heddles from one shaft to another. This is such a hated task that I tend to design for whatever number of heddles is installed on any given loom. My looms are generally set up with an equal number of heddles on all shafts.

Here's a draft I came up with in order to use roughly the same number of heddles on each shaft. It's a lampas with plain weave as the primary cloth, threaded on shafts 7-16, and 3-end (jeans) twill as the secondary cloth, threaded on shafts 1-6. I could have restricted secondary ends to shafts 1-3 and put primary ends on shafts 4-16, giving me more patterning scope, but that would have thrown the heddle count out of balance. Am I crazy? Maybe, but avoiding the transference of heddles was my major goal.

April 02, 2018

Here's the lampas diary just after cutoff. I spread it out in the back yard for a quick photo. It'll be around 5 feet tall after hemming, and I think it will fit in an exhibition space somewhere. I have another one from 2010, and they will make a good pair.

Meanwhile, on a rigid heddle loom, I'm weaving leno samples for a class I will be teaching this summer. It's at least 25 years since I've done leno, and it's just as relaxing as I remembered.

Elsewhere in the neighborhood the dogwoods have popped out. I used to have dogwood, but no longer. I miss them.

In the Department of Spinning, I've been finishing a batch of Corriedale/yak/rose fiber while watching basketball on TV. This gorgeous fiber comes from Hilltop Cloud, in Wales.

April 01, 2018

After I wove this, I realized that "by her own hand" can have an ominous meaning, which was not my intention. I was thinking of the embroidery samplers woven by young girls, with charming mottos as part of the design, for instance, "I with my needle wrought she fame," in a sampler by Charlotte Wood in 1774.

However, it is done. This is the final entry in the lampas diary.

Hemming and labeling will follow. Then on to other projects. I have a strong urge to be outdoors.

March 28, 2018

A recent email from the Penland School contained news about students' involvement with the precepts in Oblique Strategies, a set of flashcards developed by musician Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt. Creative suggestions in abundance. I was particularly struck by "Remove the middle, extend the edges" and incorporated it in my lampas diary for yesterday.

We've got lots of edges here these days. Constant change and it's all good. Most of the activity revolves around the kitchen, the smallest room in the house but the most fireworks.

And what have we here? A string of horses. Who would have guessed.

And then there is Maggie, not a high-energy girl, but good company nevertheless.

March 19, 2018

Two more lampas diary entries were prepared but not woven last week, and Sunday evening I had a burst of energy and wove both of them, even though one is predated for Tuesday. Oy vey! Is it cheating to make a diary entry a day in advance? I don't care. Insert appropriate emoji here.

As usual, these are upside down relative to weaving position. Lampas 24/7. Click to enlarge.